Submission from Strict Baptist Chapel,
Croydon
A. 1. We worship at Tamworth Road Strict
Baptist Chapel which is the oldest place of worship in Croydon
apart from the parish church and the Quakers. Started in 1721
a faithful witness has been maintained to Holy Scripture as the
Word of God. Although not so many meet as formerly a Sunday School
is also maintained. We are concerned at the decreasing standards
in our land made worse by the media and lack of true Christian
standards in ecclesiastical and political leaders. We fear the
proposed Bill will make matters worse. It sends out the wrong
signals.
2. Blasphemy has been defined as showing
contempt for the Divine Being, the Almighty God or in the utterance
of profanities or curses. The need for existing Acts punishing
the crime of Blasphemy was exemplified 20 or so years ago when
Mary Whitehouse (a lady unknown to us) as a Christian felt she
had to bring a prosecution for Blasphemy as the Attorney General
of the day chickened out and refused to prosecute. The Jury and
the Court found in her favour and convicted the offender. In another
case Lord Denning, Master of the Rolls directed the Director of
Public Prosecutions (who had earlier refused to take the case)
to take over the prosecution from Mary Whitehouse and use the
Blasphemy Acts. In our view it is a disappointing state of affairs
that paid government lawyers should abdicate their responsibilities
and leave it to a private individual to establish the law.
3. Mary Whitehouse who has recently died
aged 90 detailed some of her trials in her book "Quite Contrary"
(Sidgwick and Jackson) and explained some of the failures of "Watchdogs"
to supervise Blasphemy and other crimes. This is an illuminating
book and is no doubt available in House of Lords Library. We are
persuaded the media is getting worse and is likely to get more
so as time goes on. This is foretold in Holy Scripture—for
example "Evil men and seducers shall get worse and worse,
deceiving and being deceived" (1 Tim. 3:13). Furthermore
it is declared "There is no fear of God before their eyes
(Romans 3:18) "The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked
and who can know it?" (Jer. 17.9). We are deceiving ourselves
if we think all sanctions work—for example in yesterday's
Daily Telegraph there was an item "Straw Dogs—which
includes violent rape scenes, has been passed uncut for censors
for video release (by) the British Board of Film Classifications"!
For all these reasons especially that the wickedness of the human
heart ensures that no sanction is fully effective, we ask that
the proposed Bill should not be allowed to proceed.
4. As an example of removing laws aimed
to prevent Blasphemy and other evils the question was asked in
the Commons—what would happen to a Presbyterian who believed
the Pope was the "anti-Christ" mentioned in the Holy
Scriptures? It should be pointed out that it is not only the Presbyterians
who believe the Pope (or papal system) to be the "anti-Christ"
foretold in the Scriptures (1 Thes. 2.1/13) but Christians of
most Denominations have so expressed themselves in the past. For
example the learned Christopher Wordsworth (Bishop of Lincoln)
in a striking booklet 120 years ago "Is the Papacy predicted
by St Paul?" (republished in 1985 by the Harrison Trust,
PO Box 47, Ramsgate, Kent CT11 9XB and still available) charged
the Roman papacy as the anti-Christ of Scripture although he did
not rule out further developments of evil. He said "I am
inclined to believe that the Roman papacy will develop itself
into something worse". At Her Majesty's Coronation in June
1953 a Bible was handed to Her Majesty with the words " .
. . the most valuable thing which this world affords . . . Here
is Widsom: This is the royal law; these are the lively Oracles
of God". We are convinced that we depart from the Bible,
the Word of God at our peril.
B. 1. The other issue as to whether
a new criminal offence of inciting to religious hatred should
be created we are quite firmly of the opinion (based on a life-long
study of the Holy Scriptures) that it should not be. We think
it would be highly dangerous. True Christians must ever contend
in love for the words of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself "I
am the way . . . (to heaven) no man cometh unto the Father but
by me" (John 14.6). Nothing and no one can take the place
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
2. Our protestant laws, based on the Bible,
including the Act of Settlement and others have been the means
of preserving the liberty of the subject and the freedom of religion
for over 300 years (whether realised or not) and we firmly believe
they should remain. It would be wrong to abolish them without
putting something better in their place and as by all accounts
there is unlikely to be complete agreement we think existing laws
should remain. The speech of the present Lord Chancellor in Parliament
yesterday confirms our view. As reported he said:
"Where legislation could have far reaching
effects on our historic constitutional arrangements, both in the
UK and in the Commonwealth, it is a good principle. I would recommend
to consider legislative change only (where it can be maintained
that there is a clear and pressing need for change" (Daily
Telegraph, 3 July 2002).
3 July 2002
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